About Me

About Me

I am a professional business man and have now enjoyed a long career in both public and private businesses. I began my career over 35 years ago as a CPA and for the last 27 years I have been engaged in the restaurant industry—an industry that I love. At present I am the majority owner in a chain of Arby’s Roast Beef restaurants located in five states.

This blog and website grew out of my business experiences, but the posts you will find here are not driven by my business calling. Rather, they are distinctively Christian in content; posts of a Distinctively Christian Business Leader striving to live a professional life in harmony with my deeply held principles of faith.

And that is not always easy to do.

Personally, I am happily married to my wife Elizabeth and we have four delightful daughters and live near New Orleans. I am a Methodist; my wife is Roman Catholic. We share a deep love for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I have one son from a previous marriage who works with me in my business, and I was pleased and blessed to have been step-father to his older half-brother. I have served as a Stephen’s Minister, and have been a member of Vistage, International (an international organization of business leaders) for many years. In my spare time I enjoy playing music (piano and violin), walking, and reading.

Feet of Clay

It is interesting to note one of the most often researched definitions on the Merriam-Webster internet dictionary is for the word “integrity.” It seems each day the headlines bemoan the personal failure of those we had once admired—business and political leaders, celebrities, and athletes alike.

When the mighty fall we ask, “How could they?” or “What were they thinking?” But in quiet moments we know that our feet are also made of clay.

Christian business leaders struggle with living professional careers that are in harmony with their principles of faith. After all, Christian business leaders must lead people of different faiths, or no faith at all, in an increasingly secular world where they are pressured to balance who they are (Christians) and what they believe in (the Bible) with practicalities, compromises, and a moral relativism that says nothing is ever truly right and very seldom is anything truly wrong.

Nonetheless, Christian business leaders know that business decisions and actions always include choices of behavior pregnant with the elements of right or wrong, good or evil, and fair or unfair. The result: we experience tension, stress, doubt, and loneliness at work. Worse, we make poor decisions.

New Beginnings

Such thoughts began to hit home to me as my career was taking off. I was a Christian, but certain passages of Scripture had a tendency to trouble me whenever I heard them preached or came across them in the Bible.

For example, the admonition to store up treasure in heaven and the inescapable truth that you cannot serve both God and money (Matthew 6:19-24) caused me to question the depth of my faith, particularly with respect to my self-guided career choices. Others, such as the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16), the reluctance of the rich young man (Mark 10:17-25), and the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:14-21), haunted me. I say myself in those verses, and the image was troubling. The Scriptures revealed serious shortcomings in my relationship with God.

Out of desperation I remembered Jesus’ promise, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7 ESV).

And God answered my prayer.

This Website

Perhaps you are where I was before; the siren call of the world’s definition of morality and success no longer appeals to you—you hear it as the lie it is—and that knowledge is disquieting. You find yourself wondering about your true purpose and if what you do really matters in the big scheme of things.

If so, I have great news for you! God is in the business of guiding, training, uplifting, blessing, and transforming His people so that they more and more grow into the likeness of Jesus and fully realize their life’s purpose. Our responsibility is to allow Him the opportunity to reveal His will in our lives. God is not apart from our work.

The posts you will find in this blog and website are designed to reveal God’s hand in the part of your life where you feel the most pressure to exclude Him—your career. My goal is to help you discover and deepen your personal relationship with God. My posts will include specific observations about applying godly wisdom in business settings, as well as observations and devotional message to uplift your spirits and embolden you to recognize God’s guiding hand in your daily life. I typically post once a week.